The UK government has decided to impose tougher measures against individuals found to be sharing copyright protected files over the Internet. The suggested measures include capping the download speeds of offenders as well as implementing a three strikes rule that would see two warnings issued before an Internet connection is terminated.

The plans were outlined by Lord Mandelson who intends to have new legislation introduced by April 2010, but will not include the disconnection policy which would follow in 2011.

Having a connection terminated and a ban imposed will only occur if it is clear the individual in question continues to persistently download or share files illegally after receiving two warnings. Even then an appeal process will be allowed where the accused can argue against the decision to impose a ban.

ISPs based in the UK are not happy with the plans. TalkTalk were the first to speak out against the legislation stating:

What is being proposed is wrong in principle and won’t work in practice. In the event we are instructed to impose extra judicial technical measures we will challenge the instruction in the courts.

As well as outlining this new legislation Lord Mandelson said it would be accompanied with relaxed rules regarding copyright which he intends to pursue at the European level. No specific details were given except to state that sharing between friends and family of copyright files would no longer be seen as illegal, or at the very least, would not be met with action due to illegal file sharing. He also stated that work was required to make buying and downloading content cheaper.

The introduction of such legislation seems to have been introduced without considering the major implications this will have for ISPs, the management of such a system, and the end users who ultimately pay for access to the Internet.

Stating that file sharers will be punished and eventually banned from the Net is easy to say, but it hides the complexity and cost of implementing such a system. Who is meant to pay for the introduction of a monitoring system for every household in the country? Where will the money come from to support the appeals process when individuals are threatened with a ban? How does the government intend to deal with the problem of connections being hacked into and used to download files illegally?

Such questions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to considering such a plan. What Lord Mandelson and the UK government needed to do was go away and only present this legislation when they had a final plan in place and, most importantly, the ISPs in agreement to what is being proposed. It is, after all, the ISPs that this new legislation will rely on to work and as TalkTalk has already stated it won’t work and will be opposed by them and most likely other ISPs.

My personal opinion on this is it is a complete waste of money. The entertainment industry as a whole has been moving at a snail’s pace when it comes to accepting the move to digital distribution. These large corporations who control the majority of music, TV, and movies have until now decided to take action to preserve the old way of doing things rather than embracing a new way of offering access to and selling content online. But that is changing and services like Spotify, Hulu, and the newly announced Google Music Onebox show that it is possible for copyright protected content to be freely available on the Internet without being accessed illegally. Kids growing up today will come to see these streaming services as the norm in the future and issues of file sharing should diminish mainly because more content is available only online and can be accessed freely.

Lord Mandelson should take the time and money that would be required to get this new legislation implemented and instead invest it in improving the infrastructure of the Internet across the UK. That would clearly be a better use of everyone’s time and would also bolster the UK’s creative industries he seems so concerned about.